Minish Cap is just absolutely amazing. The world is small, but very well made and fun to explore. It has aged very well (I imagine most GBA games have?) so I would recommend everyone to give it a go if they like that sort of game!
I’ve never tried any Castlevania games, maybe it’s time.
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is one of my favorite games of all time. It’s the last isometric Zelda game, and they made it a swan song. The main quest it pretty short, but it’s the sort of cozy game where doing the sidequests just feels right.
In the game, you shrink down to the size of a mouse to traverse rafters and explore tiny temples and float on lillypads. It’s the sort of thing that would be no big deal in a 3D game, but is wildly ambitious in 2D. Not only do they pull it off, but they fill the environments with lush, lived-in detail that springs to life when you shrink down and look at it up close. The art style still sticks with me after 20 years.
Also, forget all the “hey, listen” stuff, your sidekick Ezlo just sasses you the entire time. It’s great.
Single-handedly? Nah. It pulled a lot of existing ideas together though, and it’s certainly responsible for the popularity. Another Minecraft influence is early-access.
I’ve curated a list based on my own preferences. A couple caveats are that I haven’t played most of them, some stuff like DBZ and Yugioh are whatever if you’re not into those franchises and some stuff has better ports elsewhere and isnt included: pastebin.com/Fv2RtN61
they’re great for short bursts of gameplay, each dungeon takes like an hour on average. if it helps your decision, the first game is the shortest at 10-25 hrs but is also the hardest. the hd collection has an easy mode that lets you kill most weak enemies in a few shots. the DS port of 1 is the definitive version & has maps to make the dungeons easier (there’s an English patch)
The first one was maybe weird because it was still setting itself up. The second one was indeed a filler and the worst of the series (but nowhere near MMBN4-level bad). The third one on the other hand is easily a masterpiece beating MMBN6.
Boktai series: Hideo Kojima's most unusual work, and I mean that in the best way. These games were so near and dear to my childhood, especially 2. Really though you want the Solar Sensor hardware for the full experience, but I love these games too much not to plug them anyway. Emulating them is worth it over not playing them at all. And for the third game, you'd have to pick between original hardware or the translation patch anyway.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: It's Castlevania. It's good. Also check out Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance, but AoS was by far the best of the GBA entries.
Golden Sun 1/2: These games were way ahead of their time for how they designed a combat system that encourages you to use all of your tools and not just click basic Attack as if you gotta hoard your MP for a rainy day. Fantastic puzzles too.
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: If you've played any of the other Mario RPGs, this one's great too. Has a 3DS remake but I haven't played that version so I can't tell you how it compares.
Metroid: Zero Mission: The original Metroid has aged rather poorly if you ask me, but this remake does a perfect job modernizing it into one of the best games in the series. Fusion is good too, but some fans have opinions on that one.
Mother 3: Surely you have already heard of this game and do not need me to tell you to go play it. Have you not played it by now? Why not? Well, okay, if you haven't played Earthbound first, go do so, then play this.
Rhythm Tengoku: A wonderful game about pressing the A button. Sometimes you press the d-pad too. Translation patch.
Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1/2: If you've ever played the classic 2D Tales games, these are excellent spiritual successors to those. There's a third game that's JP-only, translation patch is being worked on but it's been stuck in development hell for years...
Holy shit boktai was kojima?! Only reason i about this series was the crossover chips and and endgame quest in MMBN4 and on. Super cool and unique concept with the solar panel stuff.
The lack of a modern port makes availability an issue, so it’s definitely more in cult classic territory, but it is definitely a critics’ darling and is often thrown around among the group of best games of all time. It’s not uncommon for it to rank nr. 1 on “Best Final Fantasy Games” lists either.
Crush the Castle inspired Angry Birds and several other games with the same catapult mechanic. Loved that flash game way before Angry Birds was put on the App Store.
I tried UO, AC, EQ1+2 and can say that WoW’s beloved IP, look and feel, and relative lack of clunkiness in the controls and animations were big differentiators for me.
The question was, “what games popularized certain mechanics.” The question was not, “what games created or introduced certain mechanics.”
Yes, there were other MMOs before WoW, but WoW took MMOs to a completely new level of popularity. I didn’t play ANY MMOs before WoW and wasn’t really interested to, but it was so popular that I jumped on to see what the deal was. Since then I have played ESO, LOTRO, AOC, and one other whose name I forget.
Other MMOs were popular among gaming nerds before WoW, but WoW made MMOs popular to normal people.
because it’s flat out wrong. WoW aped most of its systems from Everquest, which most of WoW’s development team was actively playing. They made some improvements on the genre, but the bones existed as early as 1997 with Ultima Online.
sure, we can quibble on the threshold of “popular” here. but you can’t question that WOW caused an absolute explosion in MMOs after it. not like anything before.
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